Boris Johnson news: PM to prorogue parliament again amid EU concern over ‘problematic points’ in new Brexit border plan
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson’s government has now published details of proposals for a withdrawal agreement to take the UK out of the EU by the end of the month, but the European Commission quickly said that “problematic points” remained in the prime minister’s plans.
Emerging after the PM’s conference speech, the proposals drew swift criticism as “problematic” and failing to safeguard the interests of people and traders on the island of Ireland. “A lot of work is needed,” said Michel Barnier, while noting the concrete offer did constitute progress.
Mr Johnson’s plan, which he billed as a compromise for the UK, would mean customs checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic as well as a regulatory control border down the Irish Sea. One manufacturers’ pressure group described the scheme, which would effectively create two borders, as “worse than no deal”.
The PM used his conference speech to say the UK must deliver Brexit because voters feel they’re being “taken for fools”. And attacking parliament, he claimed MPs “would have been voted out of the jungle by now” if politics was a reality TV show.
In the early evening, Downing Street confirmed plans to prorogue parliament again ahead of a new Queen’s Speech on 14 October.
While the Tory conference drew to a close in Manchester, the debate on the domestic violence bill continued in Westminster. Labour’s Rosie Duffield won praise for, and brought her colleagues to tears with, her account of her own experience of coercive control.
Boris Johnson is talking about the economy, trade and fisheries policy. And Jason Donovan.
“We will take back control of our fisheries and the extraordinary marine wealth of Scotland. And it is one of the many bizarre features of the SNP that in spite of being called names like Salmond and Sturgeon they are committed to handing back those fish to the control of the EU.”
“We already have some astonishing exports. Just in the last few months I have seen an Isle of Wight ship-builder that exports vast leisure catamarans to Mexico
“We export Jason Donovan CDs to North Korea. We exported Nigel Farage to America – though he seems to have come back.”
And that’s it. Boris Johnson has stopped speaking.
Before he finished up, he did some make remarkable claims about fusion – a form of power generation using controlled nuclear fusion reactions.
The PM said British scientists were “on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature fusion reactors”. Which may come as a surprise to many British scientists.
“Thanks to British technology there is a place in Oxfordshire that could soon be the hottest place in the solar system the tokamak fusion reactor in Culham,” he said.
Johnson added: “And if you go there you will learn that this country has a global lead in fusion research. And that they are on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature fusion reactors for sale around the world, delivering virtually unlimited zero-carbon power.
“Now I know they have been on the verge for some time. It is a pretty spacious kind of verge.
“But remember it was only a few years ago when people were saying that solar power would never work in cloudy old Britain, and that wind turbines would not pull the skin off a rice pudding.
“Well there are some days when wind and solar are delivering more than half our energy needs.
“We can do it. We can beat the sceptics.”
With all the concern about dangerous language – and in the absence of any new details about his Brexit proposal – it may be some of Boris Johnson’s attacks on MPs that gets the most attention.
He called Labour “fratricidal antisemitic Marxists”.
In his attacks on parliament he said: “The sad truth is that voters have more say over I’m a celebrity than they do over this House of Commons, which refuses to deliver Brexit, refuses to do anything constructive and refuses to have an election.”
And he used the “surrender” word again. “Let’s get Brexit done. We can we must and we will, even though things have not been made easier by the surrender bill.”
Our correspondent Lizzy Buchan has been watching PMQs – where shadow home secretary Diane Abbott is going up against foreign secretary Dominic Rabb.
Former attorney Dominic Grieve has just accused Boris Johnson’s right-hand man Dominic Cummings of telling lies by briefing the press about MPs “colluding” with EU.
He has asked for reassurance that the UK is “not a police state run by Mr Cummings”.
“How is the government is allowing special advisers …speaking on behalf of the government, to tell outright lies?”
Grieve said the collusion claim is “completely untrue”.
Boris Johnson will speak with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker this afternoon to discuss his proposals for the Irish border after Brexit.
Johnson is set to brief Juncker on his ideas during a phone call at 4.15pm and his European adviser David Frost will also hold technical talks with the EU in Brussels, the European Commission has confirmed.
Mina Andreeva, the commission’s chief spokeswoman, said: “We understand that we will receive a text from the United Kingdom later today and once received we will examine it objectively and in light of our well-known criteria.
Andreeva also said she would not “pre-empt any reaction” from the EU before senior figures had a chance to study the details.
“We want to enter into constructive discussions, so I will certainly not pre-empt any reaction here before even having received the text,” said the spokeswoman.
The Brexit proposal papers are expected to be published before 4pm.
Boris Johnson is also due to hold a blitz of other conversations with European leaders after his backstop proposals have been published.
Downing Street confirmed Johnson will spend the afternoon on the phone once his plans for reshaping the Northern Irish backstop have been released.
Johnson is set to travel back from the Conservative Party conference to Westminster beforehand.
“You can expect the prime minister to be engaging with other European leaders once the proposals have been published,” confirmed his spokesman.
A written ministerial statement will be made to allow MPs to study the detail before the Commons has a chance to question ministers on Thursday.
The Cabinet will also meet on Thursday to discuss the plans.
Pregnant MP Stella Creasy has asked the police for protection after being targeted by an aggressive advertising campaign by an anti-abortion group.
The Labour MP, who supported efforts to bring about a change in the law to see abortion decriminalised in Northern Ireland, was targeted by a group calling itself the Centre For Bioethical Reform UK.
Ms Creasy said she has already received "numerous threats" and has sought police protection, and the help of the Commons authorities, although she said support has not been forthcoming.
In the Commons, Ms Creasy said: "From turning up our town centre with a 20 foot banner of my head next to an image of a dead baby, of about the age of the baby I am currently carrying myself, proclaiming I am 'working hard to achieve such an outcome'.
"From buying from Clear Channel billboards advertising in my constituency displaying graphic and graphic scientifically incorrect pictures of foetuses near to schools.
"To libelling me on national radio as someone who wishes to see abortion up to birth, to their Stop Stella campaign which explicitly encourages people to target me as a hypocrite for being pregnant and advocating for the right of all women to choose when to be."
She added: "They have already stated they will keep returning and targeting me until I stop campaigning.
"Already I have received numerous threats and abusive messages which directly quote their material.
"I have sought police assistance against this harassment. I am sad to report as yet none has been given including from the parliamentary authorities."
Commons Speaker John Bercow offered to meet Ms Creasy and condemned the actions of the group as "vile, unconscionable and despicable".
Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said the Government is "similarly concerned about the nature of the campaign her".
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